Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000

PhotoDraw occupies a hefty 15OM of disk space, and there’s not much you can leave out when installing. As its name suggests, PhotoDraw is both an image editing and drawing program.
It has a good
range of border or frame effects, such as the ‘paper clip’ edge seen here in the screen dump. Note that the border picks up the colours of the image, which usually gives a pleasing result. The only real problem comes when the border reverses out a white pattern, and the edge of the picture is also white. This could happen with indoor shots, if there is a white building or snow in the background, or even when the photo is taken on an overcast day.
There is also a wide range of other effects, including artistic textures (watercolour, craquelure, and so on), but many seemed too coarse to be particularly useful when applied to an entire photo. Interesting images can be obtained by copying an object from a picture, applying an effect to the remainder, then pasting the unchanged object back into place. Many of the photographs included with the product have had their backgrounds removed to simplify the assembly of composite images. You might create a background with the drawing tools, add a photographic object and then apply a shadow effect. Although you can control the shadow’s sharpness and translucency, the overall effect is less
than stunning. APC noticed that shadows do not appear to ’grow’ from the places where the object would be in contact with the surface (such as the soles and heels of a person’s feet).
A useful variety of crop masks are provided, varying from simple geometric shapes to silhouettes of animals and human-made objects. They can also be used to punch out part of an image, and that area can be placed in a new picture. Selecting areas by colour or by following edges works reasonably well. The ususal tools for cleaning up photos, such as red-eye and scratch removal, are provided. Scanners and digital cameras are supported via TWAIN to
get photos into the computer.
A good variety of file formats are supported, including GIF, JPEG and PNG for use on the Web. The ‘Web safe’ colour palette is built into the program. The package also includes a selection of templates for Web banners and buttons, plus business stationery, greeting cards and a collection of editable ‘designer clip art’ which is more useful than it sounds for dressing up images.